96 The Connecticut Pomological Society 



devised, and with skill and persistence it can be kept under 

 control. 



I am perfectly willing to answer any questions which you 

 may wish to ask, but before I come to that there is another 

 phase of the subject, and which may be asked me, which I 

 would like to discuss a little — How does this scale get from 

 tree to tree? That is a question which will require some little 

 time to answer, because there are various ways in which this 

 distribution takes place. One way, and perhaps the greatest 

 factor in the distribution of the pest, is the wind. To give 

 an illustration, I wouW state that in a badly infested orchard, 

 during the breeding season, you will find twigs and leaves, and 

 sometimes even the fruit, literally covered with this pest. At 

 that time the least little breeze will carry these little midgets 

 from tree to tree, and by actual test we have found that they 

 are sometimes carried eighteen feet. They are carried through 

 the atmosphere very much as particles of dust. 



Another way is by means of birds. Visiting from tree to 

 tree they get these insects upon their feathers and feet, and 

 they carry them in their search for other insects. Another 

 important factor in the distribution arises from the insects 

 themselves. Other insects crawling about an infested tree 

 naturally get some of the little scales on them, and in flying 

 among the trees help the distribution in that way. Man him- 

 self, working among the trees, is apt to carry the pest from 

 infested trees to other trees upon his clothes. So you must 

 look out for that every time. 



The greatest factor in the distribution of the San Jose scale 

 has been through infested nursery stock. Nurserymen as a class 

 are not the rascals that some people try to make them out. 

 They are as good as some fruit-growers. I have found more 

 rascals among fruit growers than in any other class of people I 

 ever knew. Of course, I don't suppose that is so in Connecti- 

 cut, but this summer 1 am going to get acquamted with some of 

 you and find out. But that is a fact, my friends; the nursery- 

 men are not wholly to blame for the distribution of this pest. 

 There have been some instances where nurserymen have put 

 out scale -infested stock, and done it wilfully, but I would black- 

 list such a man immediatelv if 1 knew who he was. At the 



